menu planning without waste
Over the last fifteen years, we’ve discovered that many of our clients order more food than necessary. This raises their prices across the board from added food costs to added chef hours. Personally, we are not big fans of wasted food. Chef Darrell and I have spent many years and our own personal finances supporting those in our community suffering from food scarcity. Although we understand the practicality of making sure everyone feels good about what they’re eating at an event or family vacation, food waste is preventable, and it benefits our clients when they heed our advice.
As we make suggestions, we keep in mind that their reasons may supersede ours concerning what is most important to them. But we feel like it’s also our responsibility to help clients think through their menu to avoid added expense. We can appropriately size most of our dishes, such as the Italian charcuterie pictured, based on the number of guests. Considering that most meals don’t last longer than 2-3 hours, keep in mind that folks can only consume so much.
Clients express a number of valid reasons for ordering more food than necessary including:
Clients want leftovers. We see this with families who engage us at the beginning of their vacation, and hope that leftovers will lessen meal preparation for the week. We recently had a vegetarian bride who wanted specific leftovers from the reception. So, we made an abundance of the items requested knowing she wanted to take it home. If you’re vacationing, renting a home or condo, keep in mind that there may be limited refrigerator storage. So leftovers might sound amazing, but if you’ve filled the fridge with other food items, saving leftovers may prove challenging. This isn’t uncommon. When on holiday, clients often buy an abundance of food when they first arrive.
TIPS: Consider when you’re booking your personal chef experience. If you book earlier in your stay, you can plan for leftovers, or even order extra food items for the rest of your vacation. If you’re planning on leftovers from your personal chef dinner, make sure you don’t fill your fridge with snacks, drinks, etc. Extra space can be accomplished by using coolers for drinks. Some vacation rentals provide an additional refrigerator in the garage or pantry. If you feel that’s a need for your group, be sure to ask about additional refrigerator space.
The client is working around a variety of food allergies. It can be challenging when you’re booking for a group while considering multiple food allergies. We see this more often now and we have plenty of recommendations for ensuring everyone is safe with your chosen menu. We can often help clients select dishes that protect those with food allergies, but are also appealing to guests without them. With a recent event, we had a request for three desserts, but only a couple of guests needed a gluten free option. Rather than adding a fourth dessert, we simply made the requested chocolate cupcakes gluten free, and no one minded. The non-gf guests didn’t notice the difference, and the GF guests enjoyed a safe dessert. It also saved the client money because they didn’t have to order an extra dessert.
TIP: Be sure to mention all food allergies to the chef before actually developing your menu. Our experience with creating unique menus can save you time and stress, and often, money.
The client is hungry. You can laugh, but I’ve actually had clients say they were hungry when they ordered their food. Hunger affects your decision making skills and causes you to want more food items than can be consumed in one meal.
TIP: Just like with grocery shopping, you don’t want to make major food decisions on an empty stomach. You’ll make better choices if your body is fed.
Too many opinions about food options. It’s not uncommon for family members or friends to express their own personal preferences. The larger the number, the less likely you’ll be to please everyone. We’ve supported some really stressed out clients because they’re trying to make everybody happy. If it’s a special event, like a birthday or anniversary, we often suggest that the person/people being honored have first option for menu items. If it’s a vacation and our services are a single night experience, allow different people to plan out menus for the week other than the personal chef experience. If you have multiple personal chef experiences scheduled, you could assign parts of your group to plan for each of the nightly menus.
TIP: If you want to include other guests in the decision making process, ask for general ideas (beef, vegetarian, seafood, etc.) and communicate their preferences with us. We can design appetizers for seafood lovers, a huge salad and multiple side vegetables for vegetarians, and a beef entree for everyone else. If people want seafood and beef or chicken, we can create a surf and turf style entree. We can create a pasta two ways to feed vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Lowcountry boil typically contains seafood (shrimp and/or crab legs) and sausage, but vegetarian portions may be pulled before adding meat or seafood. Let our experience help guide you so more of your family and friends feel like they’ve been heard.
We understand it can be a major responsibility to plan a menu for a large group. We’ve had clients struggle to make six people happy, let alone twenty. We’ll to help relieve your menu decision stress by addressing any food concerns you have about the number of courses, the type of foods and the amount of each course needed. We’ve had six guests insist on three appetizers, a salad, two different entrees and dessert. Being locals, they wanted leftovers. We’ve also had bachelorette parties where double the food needed was initially ordered, and they were leaving the next day. Of course, we’ll prepare as many courses and as much food as a client desires, but we typically advise them when it seems to be too much.
Note: Although we don’t allow public comments on our blog, we’d love to hear from you if you have a question or related comment. Email info@seasonspersonalchef.com if you’d like to connect.
